Translating Nouzha Fassi Fihri's La Baroudeuse: A Case Study in ...

patios, polish the tea trays, and shine the dishes reserved for special occasions.
When the cooking was done and she had tasted each dish twice to test its flavor,
she shut herself in her room to prepare to greet her beloved. She put on an Indian
red caftan and a sheer outer garment of matching silk muslin. She circled her
waist with a belt of velvet brocade and put light yellow, gold-embroidered
slippers on her feet. Then she sat down in front of her mirror to begin the difficult
job of putting on the headdress.
She parted her hair in the middle, smoothed it flat, twisted it into a low
bun and covered it with a black net banded in gold at both ends. On this net she
placed a quilted red silk crown with upturned tips at either end. She attached
these tips behind her head with a thin elastic band passed the bun. She laid two
gold-embroidered bands over the silk crown. Then she covered the entire crown
with a gold-threaded silk scarf that draped in light folds down her back. Over the
scarf, she placed a few strings of pearls. When her headdress was properly
adjusted, she darkened the inner lids of her eyes with a kohl stick, lightly rouged
her cheeks and rubbed her teeth with cured walnut bark to make them shinier.
These preparations lasted more than an hour during which she forgot her
age and felt as nervous as a girl. When she had finished, she glanced one last time
at her reflection and said in a loud voice, as though to ward off the evil eye, "You
old bag."
This was not Moulay Ali's opinion when she met him at the door, standing
straight as an arrow, radiant with happiness. For a moment he imagined that all
the years of their separation had only been a long and painful nightmare.
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